Cocktail Hacker

As this week ends with the US’s Independence Day, the Fourth of July, it seems only fitting that I pick a cocktail that would fit the theme.  I took a quick peek through my books thinking I would easily find a cocktail called something like the Independence or Independence Day, but alas I did not.  I have no doubt one exists, but I was looking for a classic.  Then I remembered something I found when I was investigating the Negroni.  If you remember, the Negroni was created as a spin off of an existing cocktail, the Americano.  I’m an Americano!  Perfect!

The Americano is the result of an Italian bartender trying to create an American style cocktail sometime in the late 1800s.  Gary Regan mentions that the first printing of the recipe was in 1937 in WJ Tarling’s Cafe Royal Cocktail Book.  I’m excited for this week.  The Americano looks like a boldly flavored cocktail that is still on the lighter side.  Should be a tasty adventure!

Americano (Joy of Mixology)

1 1/2 oz Campari
1 1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
2 oz Club Soda
Orange Twist for Garnish

1) Build in an ice filled highball glass
2) Garnish with an orange twist

My week of Salty Dogs started when I mixed some up for my cousin Tara and I.  I followed the simple recipe I laid out at the beginning of the week, 2 oz vodka, 3 oz grapefruit juice.  The only grapefruit juice I had on hand was the kind in the tiny cans and I failed to rim the glasses with salt.  D’Oh.  As you can guess we were already well on our way to failure.  After a tentative couple of sips we both concluded that the drink was much too sour in its current form.  I added a touch of raspberry syrup and all was right in the world again.  But of the failings I mention above what was the key to making this drink tasty?

I picked up some grapefruit and decided I’d give the drink a go with fresh juice (always a good call).  However, much to my surprise, it seems I hadn’t read the label very well and came home with pink grapefruit.  Which, I found out on a second trip to the store, is all they have right now.  Nevertheless, I juiced them up and mixed up a cocktail, complete with salted rim this time.

This time the drink was much more palatable than my first attempt.  The pink grapefruit juice is less sour than white grapefruit and quite a bit sweeter.  Be warned, this version goes down very easy.  The vodka is lost to the sweet/sour flavor of the pink grapefruit and before you realize it your glass is empty again.  The salt was a nice touch but really works much better with the sourer white grapefruit.  If you’re using pink go light on the salt and I’d suggest only rimming half the glass.  That way you only have to have salt if you want.

The same evening Aaron was over to finalize our Tales of the Cocktail plans and he chose to mix up the Difford’s recipe (below).  This recipe changes things up a bit by adding a touch of Maraschino to the mix.  This has two effects on the cocktail.  First, it will sweeten it up a bit, which could be needed if you’re going the white grapefruit route.  Second, it gives the drink a little more interesting flavor.  Like the Aviation you’re using the Maraschino very sparingly so it’s flavor is subtly applied.  Overall Aaron was very surprised and pleased.  He sums it up best: “[I] really thought it would be more like my college ‘whatever juice I can find and vodka drinks’.”  Well said my friend.

Salty Dog (Diffords Guide #7)

2 oz Vodka
2 1/4 oz Grapefruit Juice
1/8 oz Maraschino
Salt for Rimming

Finally I circled back to where I started the week and gave the canned white grapefruit juice a second go.  With this second attempt I came to a different conclusion.  The sourness of the grapefruit juice is actually quite refreshing.  But it does make you slow down your sipping.  The salt is a nice touch, but not entirely necessary in my opinion.  However, if you decide to leave it off know that you’re now drinking a Greyhound, amazing what a touch of salt can do.

Being from Colorado I can’t even begin to claim that I’m a Salty Dog.  But, salty or not it’s hot today and I was looking for a cold refreshing cocktail to feature this week.  In my search I stumbled across the Salty Dog and knew it was a perfect match.  How can you go wrong with vodka and grapefruit juice on a hot day?  Plus, the way I see it, I have to get ready for the even hotter days to come and what better way to do that with some solid drinking.

Salty Dog

2 oz Vodka
3 oz Grapefruit Juice

1) Build in an ice filled, salt rimmed highball glass

Holy crap does time ever fly by!  Today marks the one year anniversary of the first cocktail post here at Cocktail Hacker.  Since then we’ve entertained 9,250 visitors, uploaded 197 posts, had 227 comments from our awesome readers and posted 549 pictures to the Flickr pool.  We’ve learned a tremendous amount about cocktails over this year and are enjoying the journey as much now as ever.  Here’s a toast to the next year of cocktail hacking!

After this week of experimentation I have a bit of a confession to make, I think I’m starting to get over my deep seated phobia of pink. You see, I keep making pink cocktails worried about their possible girly appearance only to be consistently blown away by their amazing flavor.  The Clover Club, like the others before it, is truly a delicious pink cocktail.

In reading Gary Regan’s recipe in the Joy of Mixology one thing struck me as interesting.  He said the the cocktail “isn’t much to talk about” when made with grenadine instead of raspberry syrup.  That got me thinking.  What is it about the raspberry syrup that makes it so much better in this application?  What was the grenadine lacking?  So, I decided this week, rather than focusing on a number of different recipes, I’d use only Gary’s recipe but change up that other key ingredient, the fruit syrup.  Since Gary’s recipe calls for adding the syrup to taste I went with my standard sour ratio and added 1/2 oz of syrup for each cocktail.  Here’s the recipe I used.

Clover Club

2 oz Gin (Junipero)
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Raspberry Syrup
Egg White

Store bought grenadine wasn’t even a viable option so I decided not to even try that.  Instead I went with homemade grenadine, Torani raspberry syrup and homemade raspberry syrup.

Homemade Raspberry Syrup: I decided to start my experiments here, primarily because I love making new ingredients.  This was a simple one to make.  I followed the same basic recipe that I used for my strawberry syrup.

Raspberry Syrup

1 1/2 cups Water
1 1/2 cups Sugar
2 tubs Raspberries (12 oz total)

1) Rinse raspberries
2) Combine sugar and water in a pot
3) Heat on medium stirring until sugar is dissolved
4) Add raspberries, reduce heat to low
5) Simmer for 30 minutes stirring to break up raspberries
6) Cool and strain out seeds

The syrup is a beautiful light red and the flavor of fresh raspberries really comes through.  In the Clover Club you can really taste the raspberry coming through.  The drink is less sweet than I expected but it’s actually just the right balance.  Any sweeter and it would begin to dominate and the raspberry flavor would over power the gin and lemon juice.

Torani Raspberry Syrup: I picked up a bottle of Torani Raspberry Syrup from Cost Plus World Market.  Interestingly, it’s not bad at all.  It’s slightly sweeter than my homemade syrup and not as natural tasting but overall still very good.  If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own this is certainly a reasonable option.

Homemade Hibiscus Grenadine: I love this grenadine recipe but in the Clover Club it doesn’t shine through as well as the raspberry does.  I found the subtle flavors of the grenadine were masked by the gin and lemon juice.  That said my grenadine is about 4 months old so it may have lost some of its intensity.

If you’ve got the time and want to put in the effort make some raspberry syrup of your own.  Your Clover Club will be much better for your efforts.  The Torani syrup is definitely a good option as well but the flavor won’t be exactly the same.  Finally I’d suggest using a gin on the bolder side.  Don’t bust out your Bombay Sapphire for this, it’s flavors will be lost completely.

I hope with this addition you continue to enjoy your delicious pink cocktails as much as I will.

This month’s Mixology Monday is being hosted by none other than Rum Dood himself.  As you may recall I’ve been espousing Dood as the master of all things rum for the last few days and thanking him heartily for his suggestions on the topic.  Seems only logical that this month’s topic would be rum.  Although the logical choice, it is in fact wrong.  You see, they’ve already had Mixology Monday: Rum nearly a year ago.  So, the topic was chosen to be ginger instead.

When I saw this month’s topic I knew I had to mix up something tasty.  I absolutely love ginger, but what to make?  I already covered ginger beer back when I covered the Dark and Stormy, so that was out.  I’ve talked a bit about ginger ale specifically when making a Pimm’s Cup, so that option didn’t sound good either.  But one that I hadn’t experimented with was ginger infused simple syrup.  So, I decided that’s what I’d base this month’s submission on.  But as I was mulling this idea over in my head another idea slowly began to form, what about a ginger five spice simple syrup?

If done right I’d end up with a syrup that had both the spicy flavors of the ginger combined with the distinctly asian flavors of the five spice.  Well do it up right I certainly did.  Although, truth be told, my first batch didn’t have nearly enough ginger so I ended up giving it a second go.  The recipe below is for the second go and the ginger flavor is imense and wonderfully tasty.

Ginger Five Spice Simple Syrup

2 cups Water
4-6 oz Fresh Ginger Root
2 Tbsp Five Spice Powder
Demerara Sugar

1) Wash ginger and slice very thin
2) Simmer all ingredients on low for 30 minutes
3) Allow mixture to cool for 10-15 minutes
4) Strain off solids
5) Measure remaining liquid (about 1 cup in my case)
6) Add an equal amount of demerara sugar
7) Stir until dissolved
[Note] You can add 1 oz of grain alcohol to make it more shelf stable

The resulting syrup is a rich brown and is as fragrant as can be.  Now I had a solid ingredient but what recipe to use it in?  My first go was in a Rye Old Fashioned.  The resulting drink was good, but not great.  Back to the drawing board.  Then it hit me.  What about a Daiquiri with some nice gold rum?  It sounded delicious and the rum would certainly make the Dood happy.  Yes, my friends, that was the answer.

Ginger Five Spice Daiquiri

2 oz Appleton Estate V/X
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Ginger Five Spice Syrup
Candied Ginger for Garnish

1) Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice
2) Shake until well chilled
3) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
4) Garnish with candied ginger

The complex flavor profile of this cocktail is tremendous.  The rum, ginger and five spice really play together very, very nicely.  You first get the five spice flavors hitting your palate followed by the subtle hints of oak in the rum.  Next comes the ginger flavor which plays through all the way to the after taste where you get a pleasant hit of the ginger’s spiciness.  You definitely want to choose a gold rum for this drink to get those light woody notes.  Another thanks to the Dood for the suggestion of Appleton Estate V/X.

Hope this entry in the MxMo annals has inspired you to mix up some interesting syrups of your own.  Let me know how they turn out, I’m always looking for interesting drinks.

This week I’m going to turn my focus to another gin sour, namely the Clover Club.  This drink takes a bit of a diversion from the typical sour by replacing the simple syrup with raspberry syrup or grenadine.  Gary Regan mentions in the Joy of Mixology that this drink “isn’t much to talk about” when mixed with Grenadine, which presents a bit of a problem.  While I have grenadine readily available, raspberry syrup may be a bit tougher to find.  Good news though, as you’ve likely already surmised, I can and will make my own.  Here’s the cocktail recipe to get you warmed up while I work on some tasty ingredients.

Clover Club (Joy of Mixology)

2 oz Gin
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 Egg White
Raspberry Syrup or Grenadine to Taste

1) Combine ingredients over ice
2) Shake until well chilled
3) Strain in to a chilled cocktail glass

This week’s drink of choice presented a nearly endless range of possibilities.  What cola to choose?  What recipe? What spirit?  I opted to narrow down the field a bit and focus only on the choice of spirit this time.  In doing so I had to decide on a cola and a recipe upon which to base my experimentation.  I decided on Blue Sky Cola primarily because it’s caffeine free, which works good for me.  Another plus for the Blue Sky though is that it is made with pure cane sugar which I feel gives sodas a crisper taste.  Now to the recipe.  As I mentioned in my intro post I wanted to focus on the all day drinking, summer BBQ style of highball so I went with 6 oz of cola and 2 oz of spirit for each drink.  Now some results.

Bulleit Bourbon: Since Bulleit is a Rye heavy bourbon this drink was a bit spicier than some of the others, although not as spicy as the Rittenhouse.  The smoky notes are present and very tasty with the sweetness of the cola.  While this is a great drink I would choose straight rye given the choice.

Rittenhouse 100: Quite spicy from the use of the rye and yet the smoky barrel aged flavors are still there.  There was no doubt, I like this mix better than standard bourbon.  More flavors to play off each other and, not to sound too wine snobbish, an overall bigger flavor.

Eagle Rare Bourbon: A very sweet drink.  The natural sweetness of the bourbon combined with the sweetness of the cola takes it over the top for me.  While I do enjoy this drink with it’s subtle smoky flavors it’s not my favorite.

Jack Daniels: This one is a classic and understandably so.  For whiskey fans you get the mellow oak flavors coming through.  But, like the Eagle Rare, this was a bit too sweet for my taste.

Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum: The Dood wasn’t wrong with this recommendation.  Light vanilla and spice flavors from the rum come through and interestingly the resulting cocktail isn’t as sweet as I expected it would be.  This spiced rum also doesn’t have any of the weird aftertaste you get with some other spiced rums.  Definitely a solid choice if you’re a spiced rum fan.

Appleton Estate V/X: The gold rum has a more bold flavor than a white rum with more noticeable oak notes, although still fairly light.  After having tasted both light and gold rums in this drink I’d reach for the gold in the future as I feel it lends a more complex flavor to the finished drink.

Flor de Cana Extra Dry: Another solid Rum Dood suggestion.  This white rum is drier than the Bacardi which was a nice twist for me.  As I mentioned above I prefer this drink with a drier spirit so the end result isn’t overly sweet.

Bacardi White Rum: Since this rum is sweet to begin with adding it to the cola resulted in a drink that was sweeter than I like.  You do still get the pleasant molasses flavor coming through, which helps broaden the flavor.  While this drink is still pretty good it wasn’t one of my favorites.

So, now that I’ve told you about each spirit on it’s own how about a brief summary.  If you’re looking to make a whiskey based drink I’d suggest reaching for the straight rye first as it will give you a spiciness that is really great.  If you’re wanting something a bit sweeter then go for a rye heavy bourbon, such as the Bulleit I sampled.  It will give you the sweeter notes of the bourbon but still offer a nice bit of spiciness as well.

As for rum, my hands down winner was the Appleton Estate V/X gold rum.  The additional complexity of flavor with the light oak notes is definitely worth it.  Second is a tie between the Flor de Cana Extra Dry and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum.  It really depends on the flavor profile you’re after at that point.  You really can’t go wrong with either.

When I started Cocktail Hacker a little over a year ago my liquor shopping trips were strategic in nature, now it’s a decidedly more tactical affair.  In times past I would go to the store some times with a goal, more often not, and I would come home with spirits that sounded like they might be good.  Problem with that is the little “might” lurking in front of “be good”.  Most of the stuff I bought was very good, but there were a select few that just weren’t.  Further, of those that were good some of them simply didn’t fit the use I had in mind for them.

Flash forward to today and specifically this week’s cocktail.  When I shop now I usually have specific items in mind that I want.  Granted I still do some experimenting with my purchases, but it’s no longer the predominant method of selection.  As an example, one of this week’s cocktails is the Rum and Coke.  Now, I have a pretty sizable rum collection already so that wasn’t really the problem.  Problem was my collection wasn’t all that varied.  I really want to try a Rum and Coke with a variety of rums (light, gold, dark, spiced, etc) but I want my choice of rum in each to be a solid representation of its respective category.  That’s the sort of situation where I turn to the Jedi Masters for advice.

In this case the master of all things rum is Rum Dood (AKA Matt Robold).  Dood’s blog is devoted to the subject and there you’ll find well thought out reviews, excellent cocktails and in my case the education I needed on what rums to keep an eye out for.  About a month ago I asked Dood for a suggestion on a gold rum for everyday mixing and nearly immediately got back suggestions of Appleton Estate V/X and Mount Gay Eclipse.  I opted for the Appleton Estate V/X and the suggestion was spot on.  Last week Dood really piqued my interest with a post entitled Rum 101: How to Get Started with Rum.  The post offers Dood’s suggested rums from each of the major categories most often used in cocktails.

Today I followed Dood’s guidance once again and picked up bottles of Sailor Jerry’s Spiced Rum and Flor de Cana Extra Dry White Rum.  You’ll be seeing more about those as they relate to cola later in the week.  Until then, stop by Dood’s site and take a look at his first Rum 101 lesson.  I think you’ll find some valuable insight.

Highballs aren’t exactly new here at Cocktail Hacker.  I’ve covered the Gin & Tonic and the Dark and Stormy in the past.  Around Superbowl time I even put up some tips on creating your own DIY highball bar for your party.  But, one category I haven’t touched on as yet is the class of cola based highballs.  You all know them and I’d be willing to bet you’ve all tried them.

I don’t think there’s a ton I can offer this subject as regards the recipes themselves.  So rather I’ll be focusing on the spirits this go round.  What’s the best type of rum to make a Rum & Coke?  I’m not sure quite yet but I aim to find out.  Is a Jack & Coke really best with Jack Daniels or is it simply excellent marketing.  Again, I’m there to find out.  The two drinks I’m going to be focusing on this week are the Rum & Coke and the Whiskey & Coke.

If you’ve got suggestions for the spirits I should try out, please chime in.   I’m truly interested in hearing what folks like in these classic drinks.  The recipe I’ll be using as my basis of comparison is:

Cola Highball

2 oz Spirit
6 oz Cola

1) Combine ingredients over ice in a highball glass

I realize this ratio may be a bit cola heavy for some, but I’m looking more at the summer BBQ type of drink. One that will take you a bit to consume but still offers sufficient kick.